1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a drive-through system for allowing a visitor riding in a motor vehicle or car to issue an order for an article of commerce or commodity. More particularly, the present invention is related to a drive-through system in which a wireless order data system is adopted for making it possible for a visitor riding in a car to issue an order for an article of commerce which order is wirelessly conveyed to an order taker resident in a store.
2. Description of the Related Art
At first, terminological definition is made. Phrase xe2x80x9cdrive-through systemxe2x80x9d means a system in which a visitor riding in an incoming car arrived at the site of a store can make an order for an article of commerce without need for getting off the car, which order is received by a store clerk resident in the store for delivering the article of commerce to the visitor for sale.
FIG. 4 shows a configuration of a conventional drive-through system. The drive-through system includes: a menu board 1 disposed at a parking lane for a car; a base station 4; order taker equipment 10 installed in a store; an order taker head set 16 used by a store clerk to receive an order; a magnet-type car detector 17 for detecting arrival of an incoming car at the parking lane; a sensor 18 for detecting the car with a light or ultrasonic wave beam; and a message unit 23 for informing the store clerk of entrance of a car into the site of the store based on a detection signal from the car detector 17 and/or the sensor 18
The menu board 1 is equipped with a menu-board speaker 2 and a menu-board microphone 3, wherein a list of commodities is put on the menu board 1. The base station 4 is equipped with a base station speaker amplifier 5, a base station microphone amplifier 7, a receiver 6, a transmitter 8, and a base station antenna 9. The order taker equipment 10 is equipped with an order taker antenna 15, a transmitter 11, an order taker microphone amplifier 12, a receiver 13, and an order taker power amplifier 14. The order taker head set 16 includes a microphone and an earphone.
The drive-through system further includes a voice processing unit 19 which is provided between the menu board 1 and the base station 4 and processes a voice signal inputted from the menu-board microphone 3.
Next, referring to FIG. 4, operation of the drive-through system will be described in brief.
When a car enters the parking lane, the car is detected by means of the car detector 17 and the sensor 18, whereupon a message of entrance of the car into the store site is issued to the store clerk resident within the store. A visitor riding in the car looks at the list of commodities (articles of sale) posted on the menu board 1 to order a desired article for sale in voice through the medium of the menu-board microphone 3. A voice signal from the menu-board microphone 3 is processed by the voice processing unit 19, and then is transmitted wirelessly to the order taker equipment 10 through the base station 4. The store clerk resident within the store has already known the entrance of the car into the parking lane from the message issued by the message unit 23. Accordingly, he or she can immediately respond to the order issued by the visitor through the menu-board speaker 2 with the aid of the order taker head set 16.
However, the conventional drive-through system is designed as a system in which the voice processing unit 19 is installed to control the base station 4 in accordance with the processing result thereof so that the store clerk can easily perceive the voice order of the visitor. To this end, it is required to maintain constantly alive the drive-through system, so that there is a problem that remarkable electric power is consumed.
Further, the start and stop of the processing executed by the voice processing unit 19 can manually be controlled by the store clerk using an appropriate switch. However, in the case, the store clerk has to manipulate the switch only after the recognition of entrance of the car as informed by the message issued from the message unit 23. As a result, the start of the processing executed by the voice processing unit 19 will be accompanied with not a little time lag. Besides, the switch on/off manipulation must be repeated every time an incoming car is detected, so that the burden imposed on the store clerk is aggravated. In the worst case, such situation may make a problem that the store clerk forgets to turn on/off the switch.
In the light of the state of the art described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved drive-through system which is capable of starting rapidly the voice processing, mitigating the burden imposed on the store clerk, reducing the electric power consumption by processing an automatic power on/off feature and thus ensuring a high reliability as well as speediness for the operation of the drive-through system.
In view of the above and other objects which will become apparent as the description proceeds, there is provided according to a first aspect of the present invention a drive-through system which includes:
a car detecting unit for automatically messaging entrance of an incoming car into a drive-through store;
a menu board including a speaker and a microphone;
a voice processing unit for processing a voice signal generated through the microphone of the menu board;
a base station operatively connected to the menu board for transmitting/receiving wirelessly the voice signal and a control signal;
an order taker head set including a microphone and an earphone, and designed to be put on a head of a store clerk; and
order taker equipment operatively connected to the order taker head set for transmitting/receiving wirelessly the voice signal and the control signal to/from the base station,
wherein upon detection of an incoming car by means of the car detecting unit, operation of the voice processing unit is automatically started;
a control signal corresponding to a level of the voice signal inputted from the voice processing unit is generated; and
voice levels in the base station and the order taker equipment are automatically adjusted according to the control signal.
By virtue of the arrangement of the drive-through system described above, the operation of the voice processing unit can automatically be started upon the automatic detection of the incoming car, whereby the voice processing can be started speedily. Further, the burden imposed on the store clerk can be mitigated significantly because the operation for turning on/off the voice processing unit can automatically be triggered. Additionally, the power consumption of the drive-through system can be reduced. Furthermore, owing to the capability of the automatic adjustment of the voice level, the visitor""s voice level can be held to be substantially constant, whereby the store clerk can perceive or recognize clearly the voice order of the visitor without fail.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive-through system which includes:
a car detecting unit for automatically messaging entrance of an incoming car into a drive-through store;
a menu board including a speaker and a microphone whose pointing direction is controllable;
an image pickup device for picking up an image of a visitor riding in the incoming car;
an image processing unit for processing an image signal outputted from the image pickup device;
a base station operatively connected to the menu board for transmitting/receiving wirelessly a voice signal and a control signal;
an order taker head set including a microphone and an earphone, and designed to be put on a head of a store clerk; and
order taker equipment operatively connected to the order taker head set for transmitting/receiving wirelessly the voice signal and the control signal to/from the base station,
wherein the pointing direction of the microphone is automatically adjusted so as to be oriented toward the visitor picked up by the image pickup device on the basis of the result of the processing executed by the image processing unit.
Owing to the arrangement of the drive-through system described above, the pointing direction of the menu-board microphone can automatically be controlled according to the position of the face or mouth of the visitor detected on the basis of the image signal from the camera. Thereby, the ratio of the voice signal to noise such as engine noise (i.e. S/N) can be improved, so that the disturbing influence of the ambient noise to the voice signal can effectively be suppressed. As a result, the store clerk can perceive the voice order of the visitor with enhanced accuracy and reliability.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a drive-through system which includes:
a car detecting unit for automatically messaging entrance of an incoming car into a drive-through store;
a menu board including a speaker and a microphone whose pointing direction is controllable;
a voice processing unit for processing a voice signal generated through the microphone of the menu board;
an image pickup device for picking up an image of a visitor riding in the car;
an image processing unit for processing an image signal outputted from the image pickup device;
a base station operatively connected to the menu board for transmitting/receiving wirelessly the voice signal and a control signal;
an order taker head set including a microphone and an earphone and designed to be put on a head of a store clerk; and
order taker equipment operatively connected to the order taker head set for transmitting/receiving wirelessly the voice signal and the control signal to/from the base station,
wherein upon detection of an incoming car by means of the car detecting unit, operation of the voice processing unit is automatically started;
a control signal corresponding to a level of the voice signal outputted from the voice processing unit is generated to adjust automatically the level of the voice signal supplied from the menu board according to the control signal in the base station and the order taker equipment; and
the pointing direction of the microphone is automatically adjusted so as to be oriented toward the visitor picked up by the image pickup device on the basis of the result of the processing executed by the image processing unit upon detection of the incoming car.
By virtue of the arrangement described above, the voice processing unit can automatically be turned on/off according to the automatic detection of the incoming car. Thereby, the voice processing can automatically be started speedily. Further, the store clerk can get rid of the burden of turning on and off the voice processing unit. Besides, the drive-through system can be operated with a reduced power consumption. Furthermore, owing to the capability of automatic adjustment of the visitor""s voice level, it can be held to be substantially constant. Moreover, by controlling the pointing direction of the menu-board microphone toward the face or mouth of the visitor by making use of the video signal from the camera, the ratio of the voice signal to noise such as engine noise (i.e. S/N) can significantly be improved. As a result, the influence of the ambient noise can effectively be suppressed, so that the store clerk can perceive the visitor""s voice order with enhanced accuracy and reliability.
The above and other objects, features and attendant advantages of the present invention will more easily be understood by reading the following description of the preferred embodiments thereof taken, only by way of example, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.